Page 96 of It Happened on the Lake

So now Evan’s sister was being dragged into it. Rand didn’t want to think about her having to lie for them.

“Later.” Evan ran back around the house to the front yard where he’d ditched his bike.

“Rich kid,” Chase said under his breath.

Chase had always envied Harper and Evan and their family’s wealth. It didn’t matter that they were all friends. Even though Chase, Evan, and Rand were close—even “blood brothers”—there was a divide between them that was wider than Lake Twilight when it came to social status.

Not that Rand gave it much thought. He liked Evan for the most part.

Then there was Harper.

But Rand didn’t want to think about her at all. It was too confusing.

Chase looked across the creek to his house, where jack-o’-lanterns had been placed around the perimeter of the dock, their distorted faces reflecting eerily in the lapping water below. “I’d better get home and wait for my dumb-ass brother. He’s out trick or treating or whatever, and when he gets back, I need to be there. He’s my alibi, y’know? Mom and Dad think we’re out together. And I want to make sure he says I was with him the whole time.”

“Wewere with him,” Rand reminded him as he felt a bat swoop close, then skim over the water.

“Right.”

“Will he?”

“Yeah. Levi’s a dick, but he’ll do it.”

Chase was already heading home. “I’ll catch you tomorrow,” he yelled over his shoulder as he took a running leap across the creek, splashing as he landed near, but not quite on, the far shore. He always thought he could jump the creek but never quite made it.

Rand waited until Chase disappeared into his house before going into his own home. Inside, he stripped off his wet clothes and surveyed the damage to his face in the mirror over the sink. Not too bad. The cut over his eye had stopped bleeding, and his face was scraped and maybe a little bruised, but it would heal. His arm hurt, and he saw that the skin had been scratched, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

In his bedroom, he changed into a pair of pajama bottoms he’d left on the floor this morning, then grabbed a T-shirt from his dresser, a hand-me-down from an uncle. He kept a stash of Necco Wafers, Hershey bars, candy cigarettes, and Pixy Stix, whatever he could buy at the five-and-dime with his extra lunch money, but tonight he was too keyed up to think about snacking and slammed the drawer shut.

What if Craig Alexander’s dad had recognized him?

Would he call the cops?

Tell Rand’s father?

And how did Evan know the guy hadn’t figured out who he was?

Regret ate at him. He never should have gone out on his bike with Chase.

He slid into bed but wasn’t able to sleep.

Still tossing and turning, he heard his mom come home, her light footsteps downstairs. He feigned sleep as she climbed the stairs to check on him, then returned to the main floor.

The phone rang, and she answered.

Rand froze. This was it! Martin Alexander was calling to tell her what Rand and his friends had done. He rolled out of bed quietly and crept partially down the stairs, listening.

But his mother kept her voice low, and he could only hear part of the conversation.

“. . . I know . . . Yes . . . I’ll try . . . but you know how he is . . .” Rand was certain the bald guy was ratting him out.

Or was he?

Why was Mom so calm?

“. . . I’ve really got to go . . . I will . . . I promise . . . oh, me, too. You know I do.”

Click.

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